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Real life happens. Everyone I know has made a blog (not necessarily anime) at one point or another and it can get boring or tiresome to maintain it.

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I'd say it's an indication of the blogger's private life, rather than the state of the anime industry.

If I assume that most bloggers are in school when they start, this means they have enough free time to watch anime and keep their blog up and running. However, there comes a point in time where they will start working. And having a job (usually) means less free time for watching anime, let alone keep a blog updated frequently. This would explain why a lot of blogs only last about 3 years.

Also, do we really need that many anime blogs to tell whether or not the interest in anime is fading?

Blogging anime was a fresh idea 6-7 years ago. However, we now have many prominent forums dedicated to discussing/reading about new anime, such as Animesuki, Crunchyroll, and MyAnimeList (not to mention the various places that post links to newly subbed video files). There's discussion at more traditional places like AnimeonDVD and Anime News Network too.

It's faster to follow anime through these than someone's blog. Often, the motivation to maintain a blog stems from reader responses/praise/agreement, and the number of participants naturally decreases as people migrate to broader anime communities. That's less incentive for the next wave of fans to start blogs.

This question always seems to come up when a young person witnesses their first "changing of the guard". The blogs aren't 'dying out', its just that old ones may be moving on and new ones are popping up. You'd have to do a statistical analysis of the numbers and then define what you mean by "dying out". If there's only a few blogs but they're read by millions? .... if there's a lot of blogs but only read by a few people each?

I think it's a fairly complex issue, not a simple yes/no question, as Vexx states. The decline of some of the "big" blogs that ran for a few years is just normal. Things come and go all the time (same can be said for fansub groups, scanlators, even entire anime sites). It's always happened and always will. Well, this goes well beyond anime and happens in everything, but let's keep it to anime examples.

Lord of Fire mentioned it may have something to do with people being students when they start, which is quite likely. Fansub groups are the same, many people being in school when they start out but after they graduate and get jobs/have families they lack the time for it. They may also just tire of doing it, unless they're very dedicated to what they do, and without much "competition" (maybe a niche not well covered elsewhere, etc.) whereas something many people do will be easier to drop as there are many alternatives for the readers to go to.

It may also just be due to changes in the fandom as a whole, with more fans just sticking to the streaming sites they watch stuff on, as they tend to have their own relevant communities which doesn't leave as much room for the blog type media to be worth people's time.

Again, as Vexx pointed out, there are many blogs by all sorts of people that may only get a handful of readers, but nobody notices them starting up and closing down. They only pay attention to the big popular ones. . . none of which I can name because I've never followed any, because as a whole I'm not a fan of opinion pieces that are the very heart of blogs. Also I quite dislike people over-analysing and breaking down series in to tiny pieces instead of just enjoying the story, which is really the bread and butter of most bloggers.

If you feel there's a void that isn't sufficiently filled, why don't you start your own blog/site?

I really don't think it's anything to do with the state of the industry at all. People constantly cry doom and gloom of anime, and claim the "golden age" is over and all sorts, yet more and more anime is made every year -- which is exactly the problem, there isn't less great stuff being made, there's just more mediocre fluff and absolute tripe being made, that tends to drown it out. This has been the case for over thirty years I've been watching anime, and I'm sure it will be the case forever more.

If I assume that most bloggers are in school when they start, this means they have enough free time to watch anime and keep their blog up and running. However, there comes a point in time where they will start working. And having a job (usually) means less free time for watching anime, let alone keep a blog updated frequently. This would explain why a lot of blogs only last about 3 years.

Or you can be an established site like RandomC which makes plenty of money on adsense and donations making anime blogging a feasible day job.

RandomC's server is at Kimsufi, which is the cheap end OVH, and OVH itself is already cheap. Cheap hosting from an already cheap service + Adsense + Reasons for people to go to your site daily + Ask for donations to boot? Shit. It almost makes me want to be some mindless summary blogger.

I'm surprised that no one thus far has brought up Twitter/Tumblr or just microblogging in general. A lot of people don't even bother with full on Wordpress blogging now just because grabbing a Tumblr/Twitter account is so much more convenient. And those aren't really considered "blogs" by those in the aniblogosphere.

Anime fans haven't become less enthusiastic, they've just found other means of expression.

Or you can be an established site like RandomC which makes plenty of money on adsense and donations making anime blogging a feasible day job.

RandomC's server is at Kimsufi, which is the cheap end OVH, and OVH itself is already cheap. Cheap hosting from an already cheap service + Adsense + Reasons for people to go to your site daily + Ask for donations to boot? Shit. It almost makes me want to be some mindless summary blogger.

As much as RC's quality has gone down, I wouldn't call them "mindless summary blogger", lol....a bit harsh.

This question always seems to come up when a young person witnesses their first "changing of the guard". The blogs aren't 'dying out', its just that old ones may be moving on and new ones are popping up. You'd have to do a statistical analysis of the numbers and then define what you mean by "dying out". If there's only a few blogs but they're read by millions? .... if there's a lot of blogs but only read by a few people each?

If the changing of the guard thing is true though, then were are the replacements? I try to keep a lookout for new sites to read, but the rate at which new sites have popped up to replace the ones that have died out seems to be kinda low.

Hopefully this is just a lull in the fandom and that newer writers are looking to join team blogs like RandomC, Sea Slugs, or THAT rather than starting their own gig. If the latter is happening, then realistically, all is well and there's really nothing to be concerned about.

While this may not be the most interesting time for anime, I haven't noticed a decline in active fans. I've actually noticed more and more people becoming interested in anime recently.
I think it, as another posted said, has more to do with the lifespan of your typical blog than the state of the anime industry.

Hmmm, a bit of my post seems to have gotten ignored by several posters: the part asking has anyone actually done the numbers or is this just anecdotal "my favorite blog just died omg"?

As for finding new blogs, I've found it to be rather difficult to find a new blog that you can use for tips and guidance on 'cool stuff to find' - it took me a while to find the ones I do follow. Also, it takes a fair amount of energy to even run a blog. I've started several, I like to set them up.... but why blog when I can babble in a forum?

Eh, I'm not sure most anime blogs are really worth reading, so I'm not sure cutting the chaff is that tragic. I mean, how many people do we really need saying the same stuff about all the same shows? Frankly, if there is a winnowing going on, which I'm not convinced of, I'd embrace it. What we really need is more room for quality original thoughts, not just more rampant image abuse. A blog shouldn't just be a place to parrot what everyone else is saying, or just to give opinions which could easily shared in a multitude of other fashions--it's a platform which carries with it a certain responsibility for original and comprehensive content.